The things that amuse me… :P
Sep 252007
Sep 202007
Fool Moon is book 2 of The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. For those of you who know me personally, you know how much of a thing I have for werewolf stories. That’s exactly the kind of tale we find Harry in this time around. I can happily say that it did not disappoint. :)
Murphy asks for Dresden’s help on a serial killer case. She tries to keep it low key since the Feds are on the case, plus IA is on her back in a big part because of him. Dresden of course makes everything worse since he is a bit of a spaz, but he feels bad about it later. :P
The case presents itself as this: Folks are getting ripped apart near full moon times. Enter possible suspects: werewolves. Ta da. Let’s do a little happy dance now for the entrance of our crazy furry friends, eh? :)
What I loved about this story is that there are many different kinds of werewolves. Who knew? I found it to be a fantastic blend of types there too. It made for fun reading as I tried to identify what kind each one was.
All in all, I had a great time reading this book. It was fast paced and super tense. It made it hard to have to close the book when my commute was over and I had to work. I am really enjoying this series so far. I can’t wait to read the next book. Here’s hoping it keeps up with this wonderful pace, twisty plotlines, and oh so crazy characters.
Sep 172007
I was amused by this horoscope and thought it could make an interesting writing prompt:
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Writing in Salon.com, Scott Rosenberg recalled how in his youth he loved to play the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. “You’d have to choose not one but two ‘alignments’ for your character,” he mused. “Good and evil, of course, but also ‘law’ and ‘chaos.’ And among the people I ran with, ‘chaotic/good’ was the thing to be, because it let you trust other people and still have fun.” Your assignment in the coming week, Virgo, is to adopt the “chaotic/good” approach for the character you will be playing in your actual life.
Your writing prompt Using the “chaotic/good” approach, write a scene with a chaotic good character at a dinner party. Make at least one other character there using the “law/good” approach (or spice things up adding one of the “evil” alignments if you so choose). Notice how the characters play off each other as you go. Does paying attention to specified alignments change how you write? How so?
Have fun!
Sep 042007
Storm Front is book 1 of the series, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.
I’ve seen a few episodes of the show on the Sci Fi Channel and I liked what I saw there. After a friend told me how great the books are, I just had to check it out for myself. And as I quickly found out, this book is a great read. Fast paced. Tense. Magic interlaced with a detective style feel…fun indeed.
Harry Dresden is the main character. He is a wizard for hire—the only one listed in the yellow pages as a matter of fact. He helps people find lost things and he even helps the police out on a few cases too. In this story, we find him wrapped up in an investigation into a murder by dark magic.
Saying Dresden is not your typical hero is putting it too lightly. He is the type of guy who never quite seems to have the upper hand in any situation. He’s prone to getting jumped. He’s the guy who will have his car die at an inopportune moment (we’ve all been there!). He’s the guy who smiles, and people instantly hate (or attack) him. Yet, he’s also personable and does his best to do right by people. You end up feeling really bad for the guy, and liking him all the more too.
Dresden is a great character, as are all the characters in this book. I found the story to be a wonderful page turner. I had a hard time with having to put it down to take care of other things. I look forward to reading more in this series. Yay! :)
Sep 032007
I saw this image on National Geographic’s site today. It’s of a market in Bruges, Belgium. I like the layers of this picture. Bicycles line the bottom of the image, while people dine outside in the back. In the center are blurry spots of cyclists riding by, which breaks the otherwise static look to the image nicely.
Your writing prompt: Describe the setting. Now pick where a character is in this scene and try describing it again, this time from that person’s perspective.
Enjoy!
